Europe today and tomorrow: mutual recognition by harmonization or by comparison?

An international system of recognition of degrees becomes more and more necessary as the professional job market becomes itself more and more international. No truly European system of recognition and accreditation of engineering degrees exists at present: so that, even within Europe, notwithstanding a Directive of 1989 that intended to ensure full right to trans-national mobility of all professionals, difficulties are still encountered, due partly to long-standing prejudices, but also to insufficient mutual knowledge of the different national systems and significance of the degrees awarded. Only a widely accepted European system allowing to understand throughout Europe what each specific engineering degree is about, and not trying to homogenize them all, will be able to fulfil two long term aims: to ensure the engineer´s right to mobility, and to contribute to a significant revision and development of engineering formation in Europe